Dancin' Moon Songcast Ep. 47 Into New

Featured song from 2012's Nebraska Catfish LP 

Into New
(Based on closing lines of Wendell Berry's "A Purification")

Like the night sky into blue
Or a single cell becoming two
Like me leaning into you
Something old is escaping into new

I used to worry my mistakes
Guilt makes the bones and the body ache
Now I am leaning into you
Something old is escaping into new

Like the past into now
A spring renewed somehow
Like the wind or the dawn—
Always returning, always gone
Ancient wisdom, come to light
A fading love that finds its fight
See how I'm leaning into you?
Something old is escaping into new.

I always wanted desperately to win
Disguising loss with a grin
But now that I am loved by you
Something old is escaping into new.
Now that I am loved by you
Something old is escaping into new.

 

A Purification
by Wendell Berry

At start of spring I open a trench
in the ground. I put into it
the winter's accumulation of paper,
pages I do not want to read
again, useless words, fragments,
errors. And I put into it
the contents of the outhouse:
light of the sun, growth of the ground,
finished with one of their journeys.
To the sky, to the wind, then,
and to the faithful trees, I confess
my sins: that I have not been happy
enough, considering my good luck;
have listened to too much noise;
have been inattentive to wonders;
have lusted after praise.
And then upon the gathered refuse
of mind and body, I close the trench,
folding shut again the dark,
the deathless earth. Beneath that seal
the old escapes into the new.